A black statue of Buddha reigns in the middle of the temple where all the remains of the patients that passed away in the monastery are stocked.

The only isolated area in the whole building is a small dorm settled for tuberculosis patients, at the end of the main room.

Maprod came to the temple with her mother seven months ago. Her mother got AIDS, but he was born healthy.

Worrakit used to inject drugs and had unprotected sex. The disease has weakened him to the point of became blind. He came to the monastery three years ago because he had nowhere to go.

A patient on Phra Baht Nam Phu Monastery awaits the nurses who take care of him.

Kraison became infected 10 years ago after having sex with a prostitute without protection. He lost his legs after suffering hyperglycemia when infected by HIV.

Rachen used to inject heroin. He was fired from his neighborhood when his neighbors realized that he was infected.

A patient tries to get some rest at his bed in the middle of the main room.

Pon joined the monastery seven years ago, after a routine check revealed that he had HIV. Since then he quit his family without saying a word to don't disturb them. Now he kills time on his bed drawing portraits of the founder of this center.

Aman, HIV affected his brain and he became deaf 5 years ago.

Some of the patients are so weak that can not even walk. They must wait for helpers to get rid of their bed prisons daily.

All the critical patients must share the same dorm, a large room loaded with hospital beds shared by the inmates and all their personal belongings.

Kitti is so weakened by the disease that he must wear diapers. He became infected after having sex with his wife. He reached the temple three years ago, after the death of his wife. None of his relatives is taking care of him.

A patient tries to get outside of the building by himself.

On a temple inside the complex, some mummies of infected HIV patients that passed away are shown to explain the visitors how the sickness affect the human body.

After death, the bodies of the patients are incinerated and the remains are stocked all together in individual sachets behind the Buddha statue.

The patients have the right to decide if, after death, they want their bodies being mummified to be shown at the museum, to explain the world how HIV affects humankind.

The Monastery of Aids

A Buddhist temple in Thailand serves thousands of HIV patients abandoned by their families. The Phra Bat Nam Pu monastery, located in Lopburi province, today takes care of more than 1,500 men, women, children and orphans. Over 10.000 patients have perished at these facilities since they began helping infected people in 1983.

In Thailand 440,000 people out of a population of 67 million live with HIV, according to the latest UNAIDS report on the state of the epidemic in the world; and there are many carriers of this virus who fear getting tested to see if they are infected due to society’s stigmatization towards the sick ones.

Most families that lead their beloved ones never return to the monastery over to visit them, even after death. New patients have to mark, at their arrival, in a form what to do with their bodies when they die because families normally don’t come to pick them up. Among the options in the form, they can chose to be mummified for display in a room a few meters from the clinic. This decision was taken by the victims themselves in life to raise awareness about HIV lethality.

Behind the altar of a Buddha statue, there are sachets containing the ashes of patients who failed to beat the disease.